


you've got it, sergeant

by nightcap



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Breakfast, Early Mornings, F/M, Implied Relationships, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, post-afghan soiree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-01
Updated: 2014-10-01
Packaged: 2018-02-19 11:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2386685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightcap/pseuds/nightcap
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Potts,” says Tony, for no discernible reason. Pepper stops talking. “Potts.”</p><p>“That is,” says Pepper, “my last name, yes.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	you've got it, sergeant

Pepper, the protagonist/girl Friday/honorary CEO of some former weapons manufacturer, is leaning against the doorway of a workshop. She’s looking in, where it’s quiet, and cool, and dark, and she’s tired – she left her phone here, came back to get it because she’s responsible, and, oh, wait – there’s Tony, the love interest/femme fatale, he’s not in bed, and it’s four am – Hello, Tony. Can he hear this? Can he see what’s happening? Maybe, maybe not, three, two, one.

“Tony,” says Pepper, quietly, “it’s four am.”

“You are – right,” says Tony, “about that.” (He is somewhat muffled by the screwdriver between his teeth.)

“This is when normal people sleep,” adds Pepper.

“I know that. But because of the, ah,” Tony taps his arc reactor, “high-tech nightlight. In my chest. See? Ambient light or – concentrated, more like, whatever? Sleep is… Highly improbable.”

“You can’t sleep,” says Pepper, biting her lip.

“Correct,” confirms Tony, frowning and tapping something into a holographic keyboard. “One second.”

There is a second. Tony spins around in his chair and faces Pepper again.

“And you. Are you – did you. Move in? Do you live here now? Do _I_ live here?”

“Yes,” says Pepper.

Tony blinks.

“No,” says Pepper. “I left my phone. In the afternoon, I think. Maybe. And then I heard banging, which is: you. Here. Downstairs.”

“Early to rise,” says Tony, looking down and tapping his chest again. Click-click-click. “I got the worm. Tasted like a slightly better version of that, uh, what was it? Pork?”

“Shrimp,” says Pepper. “It was shrimp.”

“I am not,” says Tony, a little too loudly, “actually that bad of a cook.”

“Mr. Stark,” says Pepper, crossing her arms and adjusting her stance. “Tony. Look.”

There is a short amount of time where Tony laughs silently and hysterically, presumably because ‘cook’ rhymes with ‘look’, and then he does. Look, that is.

“I don’t know what – happened over there,” says Pepper, all at once, “and I don’t – I don’t want you to feel – obligated, to tell me, or –”

Tony looks up, hard, takes the screwdriver from his mouth and squints, for a moment, scrutinizing. Pepper has the insane thought that she is peering into Tony’s skull, and that there are gears turning, teeth interlocking and metallic grinding and oil dripping from above, grease falling between little silvery points.

“I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know, but I care. And you – you can _tell_ me –”

“Potts,” says Tony, for no discernible reason. Pepper stops talking. “Potts.”

“That is,” says Pepper, “my last name, yes.”

“You,” Tony then says, tilting his head forward, a little, a light going on behind his eyes, “have _excellent_ , excellent ears. Very shapely. Delicate. Feminine.”

“I'm sorry,” says Pepper, slowly, “have you been drinking?”

“No,” says Tony thoughtfully, and after a silence, “Coffee. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m _saying_ is that you. Could,” a pause, “stay. For breakfast.”

And she does.

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS VERY SHORT BUT I'M ALMOST HAPPY WITH IT. 
> 
> for #projecthappystark 2014!! :) SO GLAD it's finally october. customary DAY AFTER EDIT.
> 
> on tumblr at raieighbecket.


End file.
